NEWMAN, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol said a Chevrolet coupe pulled in front of an oncoming Stanislaus County deputy's car moments before a deadly crash.
The crash happened between the 2015 Chevy and a 2019 Nissan Sunday morning near River Road and Villa Manucha Road on Jan. 9. It sent two people, including a sheriff's deputy, to the hospital with major injuries and left one man dead.
CHP said the deputy was responding to a call for help from a Newman police officer with both his siren and emergency lights on. The deputy was in the Nissan heading southbound on River Road toward Villa Manucha Road when CHP said the Chevy entered the intersection and wound up in the Nissan's path.
The two cars collided, causing both to wind up in an agricultural field. The driver of the Chevy, described only as a 21-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the scene. His injured passenger was identified as 19-year-old Maria Prado. Both were from Modesto.
The deputy involved in the crash was not identified by CHP, but was described as a 34-year-old man, also from Modesto. Both the deputy and the Chevy passenger are expected to survive.
Investigators are still trying to figure out whether seatbelts were in use when the crash happened and whether drugs or alcohol played a factor.
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